Victoria Szabo, Director of the Certificate Program in Information Science & Studies

Victoria Szabo

Please note: Victoria has left the "Information Science + Studies" group at Duke University; some info here might not be up to date.

 My primary teaching and research interests are in the intersection of digital humanities and technology, media, communication, and information studies, especially in relation to spatial, immersive, and interactive media forms, histories, and cultures. My current projects focus on extended reality (XR) experiences in urban, exurban, and exhibition context, with ongoing attention to location-based augmented reality. Recent collaborative, archives-driven digital projects include Digital Durham, NC Jukebox (NC mountain music), Ghett/App (architectural history of the Venetian Ghetto), and Virtual Black Charlotte, in collaboration with Johnson C Smith University. A new project, Visualizing Lovecraft, explores the multimodal digital remediation of fictive places and spaces as a form of literary adaptation. I also co-create video game based art installations with Psychasthenia Studio, and engage in digital arts curation and exhibition projects within the digital arts community at ACM SIGGRAPH. Some of my recent written work has appeared in Media and Communication, the Routledge Companion to Media Studies and Digital Humanities, and the recent CLIR report on 3D/VR in the Academic Library. I am currently co-editor of the upcoming Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Visual Culture, with a focus on Digital Futures.

I have a strong interest in interdisciplinary and lab-based approaches to scholarship and to the digital and hybrid futures of higher education, pedagogy, museums, and public scholarship, and have served in various leadership roles. At Duke, I currently direct the Information Science+Studies Certificate Program, the Digital Art History/Computational Media MA in Art, Art History & Visual Studies, and the interdisciplinary PhD in Computational Media, Arts & Cultures, for which I was the inaugural DGS. I also collaborate in the Wired Lab for Digital Art History & Visual Culture and the Visualizing Venice/Visualizing Cities consortium, and helped create the new undergraduate interdepartmental major between Computer Science and Visual and Media Studies at Duke, as well as the Computation and Design major at Duke Kunshan University (DKU). At the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute I lead the Duke Digital Humanities Initiative, where I co-direct the PhD Lab in Digital Knowledge and the NCCU-Duke Digital Humanities Fellows Program. I was co-lead of the Bass Connections Information, Society & Culture theme (2016-22), and partner in the Duke Game Lab, which sponsored a new Focus Cluster on Virtual Reality, Fictional Worlds, and Games, starting in 2021. I am also involved in faculty governance, and was elected to the Executive Committee of the Academic Council (ECAC) for 2018-20. Outside of Duke, since 2016 I have been Chair of the Digital Arts Community for ACM SIGGRAPH, an international professional organization focused on computer graphics and interactive techniques.

Before coming to Duke, I worked at Stanford University Libraries as an Academic Technology Specialist for the Introduction to the Humanities Program, where I also taught, and then as an ATS team manager for the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. I have also worked as an instructional Multimedia Specialist for Grinnell College. In the early 2000s I was a member of the iTunes U partnership with Apple that helped develop academic podcasting in higher ed.

I have a PhD in English from the University of Rochester (2000), where I studied 19th century British literature and culture, sensationalism, and women's authorship. I also have a Certificate from the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Research on Women and Gender. I got my start in what became the digital humanities in the 1990s by working on the original online Camelot Project and TEAMS Medieval English Texts Series at the Robbins Library at Rochester. I currently serve as a Consulting Editor for the METS. I also have an MA in English from Indiana University, Bloomington (1992), and a BA in English from Williams College (1990).

orcid.org/0000-0001-8008-5187

Office Location:  
Email Address: send me a message
Web Page:  http://www.duke.edu/~ves4

Teaching (Spring 2024):

Teaching (Fall 2024):

Office Hours:

Spring 2023: Fridays 9-11AM in Teams and by appointment (email)
Education:

Ph.D.University of Rochester2000
M.A. and Ph.D. in EnglishUniversity of Rochester2000
Certificate in Gender and Women's StudiesUniversity of Rochester1996
M.A.University of Rochester1996
M.A.Indiana University at Bloomington1992
B.A.Williams College1990
Specialties:

Digital Media, Multimedia Digital Art and Theory;
Expanded Media-Oriented Poetics; Virtual Reality
Computer Arts
New Technologies for Visualizing Historical Materials
Research Interests: new media, visual studies, digital humanities, digital heritage

Current projects: Visualizing Venice (mobile application and augmented reality), Digital Durham (augmented reality and mapping), InnerScape (videogame installation)

My primary research interest is in digital media authorship and its potential to transform scholarly research and its expression, especially in the humanities. Most recently I have been focusing on how spatial media forms - maps, virtual worlds, games, and data viz - might converge in diverse, multimodal, immersive, shared hypermedia places and spaces. Some "test cases" include: visualizing the Great Exhibition of 1851, mapping the contemporary Muhuru Bay community in Kenya, exploring the development of cholera in Haiti, and modeling Duke and Durham, past and present. Most recently I have worked on Venice, Italy, with special attention to architecture and cultural transformation, and on augmented reality systems development. I also work on collaborative video game based art installations with the Psychasthenia Studio, and on curatorial projects with ACM SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques.)

Areas of Interest:

virtual worlds
digital mapping
games
database driven narratives
experience design

Keywords:

Art and history • Art and technology • Digital humanities • Digital humanities centers • Digital mapping • Digital media • English literature--19th century • Games, Experimental • Humanities--Digital libraries • Literature and history • Mass media and history • New media art

Recent Publications

  1. Szabo, V, Evaluating XR: Standards for an emerging DH medium, Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, vol. 36 no. Supplement_2 (October, 2021), pp. II273-II276, Oxford University Press (OUP) [doi]  [abs]
  2. Szabo, V, Critical and creative approaches to digital cultural heritage with augmented reality, in The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media Art (July, 2020), pp. 448-461, ISBN 9780367197162
  3. Jaskot, P; Jacobs, H; Szabo, V; Olson, M; Triplett, E, Shaping the Discipline of Digital Art History: A recap of an advanced summer institute on 3-D and (geo)spatial networks (December, 2018), The Iris: Behind the Scenes at the Getty
  4. Szabo, V, Knowledge in 3D: How 3D data visualization is reshaping our world (July, 2018), Parameters: Knowledge Under Digital Conditions. Social Science Research Council.  [abs]
  5. Szabo, V, Apprehending the Past: Augmented Reality, Archives, and Cultural Memory, in The Routledge Companion to Media Studies and Digital Humanities, vol. 1 (May, 2018), Routledge, ISBN 9781138844308  [abs]
Selected Invited Lectures

  1. Plenary Session IV: Digital Future: The Research Teaching Nexus. (with Katherine Rowe), June 29, 2013, Charlotte, NC    
  2. "Building the Digital City: New Media Theory Meets Digital Humanities Practice" at HASTAC 2013., April 27, 2013, Toronto, Ontario [pdf]    
Selected Meetings

  1. "Social Media ad Art Markets: Amateurism and Expertise", October 31, 2012, Duke Art, Law and Markets Meeting, Duke University    
  2. Co-Leader, Evaluating Digital Work for Tenure and Promotion: A Workshop for Evaluators and Candidates at the 2012 MLA Convention, January 05, 2012, Modern Language Association 2012, Seattle, WA    
Selected Talks

  1. "Visualizing Venice" panel presentation at "Florentia Illustrata. Digital Mapping and Techniques of Visualizing the Pre-modern Italian City.", June 17, 2013, Florence, Italy [pdf]    
  2. "The City Talks Back: Traversing Annotated Landscapes", September 28, 2012, Society for Literature, Science and the Arts, Kitchener, Ontario [php]    
  3. "Visualizing Art, Law, and Markets", February 24, 2012, College Arts Association, Los Angees CA    
  4. "Digital Durham 3.0", February 06, 2012, CHAT Festival 2012    
  5. "Digital Humanities as the Object of New Media Studies Critique", January 07, 2012, Modern Language Association, Seattle, WA    
  6. Respondent, "Transmedia Stories and Literary Games" Panel, January 05, 2012, Modern Language Association, Seattle WA    
  7. Digital Scholarly Communication – Notes from the Wired! Lab for Digital Historical Visualization, December 02, 2011, HASTAC V Conference, Ann Arbor, MI    
  8. Digital Humanities and Historical GIS: A Conversation at the Interface, November 18, 2011, UNC Chapel Hill, NC [UNC-C]    
  9. A Primer for Digital Media Authorship: Placing the Crystal Place, November 16, 2011, Duke Wired! Lab [community.]    
  10. Respondent: Science, Industry and the Environment, October 22, 2011, American Studies Association (ASA), Baltimore, MD    
  11. Gaming the Real: The Convergence of Maps, Social Media, and Virtual Worlds, September 16, 2011, Society for Literature, Science & the Arts (SLSA), Kitchener, Ontario    
  12. "The Ethics of Virtual Cultural Representation" (Poster Session), June 20, 2011, Big Tent Digital Humanities Conference, Stanford, CA [pdf]    
  13. "Writing in 3D: Immersive Virtual Writing as Authorship and Critique", February 05, 2011, NC Symposium on the Teaching of Writing [schedule-of-events]    
  14. "Analog and Digital: Texts, Contexts, and Networks," special session organizer, January 07, 2011, Modern Language Association conference, Los Angeles, CA    
  15. Invited Panel Respondent - Sherry Turkle Lecture, "Alone Together: New Intimacies and Solitudes of the Digital Age.", November 04, 2010, NC State University [available here]    
  16. "Virtual Worlds and Community Medicine", July 12, 2010, Graduate Medical Education, Duke University School of Medicine    
  17. "Visual Studies and Digital Humanities", March 30, 2010 - April 01, 2010, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY    
  18. Panel Discussion - "Before the Flood", February 20, 2010, Nasher Museum, Durham NC    
  19. "Games and Digital Storytelling," moderator, February 17, 2010, CHAT Festival, Chapel Hill, NC    
  20. "Avatar: Techno-Embodiment(?)", January 22, 2010, John Hope Franklin Center, Durham, NC [new.duke.edu.1516004402.02524663062.3222303206]    
  21. "A Primer for Digital Media Authorship", December 29, 2009, MLA Conference, Philadelphia, PA [pdf]    
  22. "Virtual World Building as Collaborative Knowledge Production: The Online Crystal Palace", December 28, 2009, MLA Convention 2009, Philadelphia, PA [pdf]    
  23. "Multimedia Mapping for Research and Discovery in Muhuru Bay, Kenya", November 05, 2009, Educause, Denver, CO    
  24. "Digital Media Writing as Academic Authorship", June 13, 2008, New Media Consortium Conference, Princeton, NJ [5909]    
  25. ""Designing and Implementing Podcasting (Webcast), 2008, Academic Impressions - Online    
  26. "Media-Enriched Critical Writing as Gray Market Transgression", December 29, 2007, MLA Conference, Chicago, IL    
  27. "Texts in Virtual Contexts: Reading Scholarly Work in 3D Environments", December 28, 2007, MLA Conference, Chicago, IL    
  28. "Podcasting in Education” and “Videocasting in Education", August 25, 2007, E-Sanitas Symposium on Mobile Learning, Bogota, Colombia    
  29. "Digital Media and the Hybrid University", February, 2007, Podcast Academy V (Duke)    
  30. "Institutional Podcasting and Media Sharing", August, 2006, Educause Leadership Institute, Snowmass, CO    
  31. "The Mobile User" (panelist; televised, webcast), March, 2006, Ready2Net, Cal State, Monterey, CA    
  32. "Millennial Students and Technology at Stanford", February, 2006, Parents' Advisory Board, Stanford Development, Stanford U    
  33. "Course Management Tools for the Humanities", December, 2005, Sakai Developers Conference, Austin, TX    
  34. "iPods and iTunes in Higher Education" (panelist), November, 2005, Apple Digital Campus Leadership Institute, Georgia College and State U, Milledgeville, GA    
  35. Designing and Evaluating Multimedia Projects, June, 2005, Computers and Writing Pre-Conference Workshop, Stanford U, Stanford, CA    
  36. "Higher Education Implications: Teaching and Learning with Technology in Undergraduate Education", February, 2005, Apple Technology Leadership Institute Executive Briefing, Stanford U, Stanford, CA    
  37. "Persuasive Pervasive: Real Learning or Hype?" (panelist), February, 2005, National Learning Infrastructure Initiative Conference, New Orleans, LA    
Selected Other

  1. "Critical Media Studies: Hybrid Reality Systems", August 08, 2013, Duke University    
  2. Visualizing Venice Summer Workshop, June 14, 2013, Venice, Italy [Venetian]    
  3. "Digital Cities", September 09, 2012, Mapping a Common Platform: Digital Cartography in the FHI Humanities Labs, Duke University    
  4. Visualizing Venice Summer Workshop, June 13, 2012, Venice, Italy [was]    
  5. Instructor, Digital Visualization (WIRED) Workshop, June 13, 2011 - June 17, 2011, Smith Warehouse, Duke University    
  6. Instructor, Digital Visualization (WIRED) Workshop, June 7, 2010 - June 18,2010, Smith Warehouse, Duke University    
  7. Digital Literacy Panel for Duke Librarian Retreat, May 19, 2010, Duke Libraries [faculty.]    
  8. "Teaching and Learning in Second Life", May, 2009, CIT Lunchtime Demonstration (Duke)    
  9. "Multimedia Mapping for Engagement and Discovery", April 03, 2009, CIT Instructional Technology Showcase [html]    
  10. Duke News Online "Office Hours", January 6, 2009 [topics.]    
  11. "Second Life in Undergraduate Education at Duke", April 24, 2008, CIT Instructional Technology Showcase [html]    
  12. "Mashing the Nasher: the ISIS Virtual ‘Gnasher’ Project", May, 2007, CIT Instructional Technology Showcase